TubeTV – A Handy Little App for Saving Your Videos

Chimoosoft created this fantastic little donationware app called TubeTv. With this app, you can save video files from YouTube and other sites and make them playable on your Mac, iPod, or Apple TV. There are of course other ways to do the same thing, but a standalone app that grabs your URL from your default browser, converts it to your desired format, and adds it to your iTunes library makes it very simple.

TubeTV lets you specify a certain site for the built-in search. It makes finding videos a lot easier and faster. You can search YouTube, Google Video, Google, and Dailymotion. It also allows you to launch your most recent page.

Not only does TubeTV convert files to fit your desired player (your iPod, AppleTV, iPhone) it can also add the video to iTunes in one of three default formats: Movie, Music Video, or TV Show. This comes in really handy when you don’t want to try converting or changing it later to be in the correct category. TubeTV can save the downloaded .flv file, but I have it just throw it away, then it can move the converted file to your iTunes library and delete the converted file from your download location.

TubeTV is not without its drawbacks. First, sometimes the “Download Movie” button does not work. I have clicked that thing five or six times with no luck. Then, I searched the menu area for a command to download the movie and I could find one. The only thing I found was a “Download from Firefox” and I couldn’t get that to work either. I had to restart it, which is a pain when it happens a lot. This sometimes happens when I want to download a second movie later, without quitting the application. I had to restart it after each single download. Second, I set the preferences to download four movies at a time, but only once have I been able to download two movies at a time. Sometimes, not all the time, it just waits for the first to finish downloading, then it starts the second. I can’t figure out why it waits like that.

This is an especially useful application for teachers. There is a lot of education-related content on YouTube that is suitable for teachers to show to their students. Sadly, the comments on YouTube are not appropriate for most kids (though they are probably the ones that post those comments). With TubeTV, teachers can download a video and use it in class without the “Related Videos” or comments sections showing up and forcing the teacher to adopt a deep shade of red.

TubeTV does require Perian, so you will have to download that as well.

This program is donationware, so go here and download it, then throw the recommended $15 bucks to the team at Chimoosoft to show your appreciation.